


Where Are You?

by tenguoni



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Canon Divergent, M/M, Meteorstuck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:54:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21591811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tenguoni/pseuds/tenguoni
Summary: Karkat is sparse nowadays, and Dave wants to know why.
Relationships: Dave Strider & Karkat Vantas, background Terezi Pyrope/Vriska Serket
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	Where Are You?

**Author's Note:**

> basically exposition the chapter
> 
> sorry my writing is basically a stream of consciousness at all times i hope it's okay to read thank u <3

Meteor days have gotten pretty blurry recently. After a few months, it loses its novelty. After two and a half years though, it kinda loses all charm. Space is his front yard and his backyard, there’s a clown in the vents, and his friends are coupling up. In another scenario, Dave would have a sense of humor about it, sort of like how it’s the perfect set-up for a ridiculously hilarious, whimsical, sitcom.

Unfortunately, it’s not that funny. It’s kind of boring, depressing sometimes, Dave spends a probably unhealthy amount indoors. He’s sort of scared he’s been away from any light for so long he’ll turn white-- yikes. He is looking a little pale these days, considering he’s used to being in Texas, where the sun will beat you down and melt your sandals on the sidewalk.

Luckily his health isn’t really affected, he’s immortal now, after all. Perks. Never have to see a doctor again. Booyah.

Ugh. Dave’s so bored. He’s probably had all these thoughts a million times by now, running his brain in little circles until a distraction comes along to pull him out of the haze of metaphors and self-entertaining jokes about racebending.

Luckily one comes before things get weird, and Dave’s ass watch starts vibrating. The inviting little foam ass sitting perched atop his wrist, telling him he has a call waiting.   
  
“Yo.” Dave picks up, being met with the hologram of Karkat, who’s evidently a little distracted.

“Hey, come to CanTown. Mayor has something they want to show you.” Karkat says, and Dave deduces he’s just distracted because Mayor is more captivating than this conversation. Fair enough.

It’s a little surprising Karkat is actually out and about today. He’s been a little M.I.A. Dave thought he might be sick or something, but he seems to be in a better-ish mood, hanging out with the Mayor and inviting Dave to join.

He doesn’t need to be told twice, Dave gets out of his room and takes a jaunty stroll in the direction of CanTown. As he approaches, he can hear Karkat’s terrible attempt at regulating his volume, and the occasional clink-clink of cans.

Dave walks right up to the edge of the chalk roads, looking around and seeing what’s changed as he adjusts his glasses on his nose. “Cool. New residents, Mayor?”

Mayor holds up OKRA as if victorious and happy, showing off said new resident of CanTown.

“Yeah, it was getting a little stale here so we crafted some new citizens with some trash.” Karkat explains, sitting on his legs beside Mayor. He looks especially small when he sits like this.

Dave carefully skirts around the edge of the town to sit beside his two bro’s, scoping out the infrastructure changes. “So what’s Okra’s deal?”

“I’ve gathered Okra is a rebellious non-law-abiding citizen, they like to do graffiti and fuck shit up, or something to that effect. Paraphrasing, as I think you know, on account of the fact Mayor is far too fucking pure to use garbage language.” Karkat explains to Dave, going on to elaborate, “It was mostly Terezi’s idea to make them a criminal, I think she just wants an excuse to play court. Which, believe me, the irony is not lost, I doubt she’ll be coming back now that her and Vriska are shacked up like the disgusting vacillators they are.”

“Not totally sure if that’s a word,” Dave gestures freely in the air, “Point received though. What’s the take on Okra? Do we like ‘em?”

Mayor answers this, by raising Okra and miming the motion of bashing the can. Dave nods sagely, “That’s a no. Okra is a public menace. They will be stopped Mx. Mayor, and we’ll get our best attorney on the case ASAP.”

Karkat readjusts so he’s sitting criss-crossed, leaning back on his hands, “That’s a big promise.”

“Psh, what, you sayin’ we can’t get public enemy number one behind bars?”

“Okay, first of all, you know that cream corn is public enemy number one, so shut the fuck up? And I know you’re not going to be the head of the operation, and you’re certainly not going to become town hero because of it.” Karkat completely slams Dave into the floors with his words. Damn. Harsh.

Mayor grabs their attention again, waving their little arms so they’ll look at them. Then Mayor simply places Okra in jail, like it was really just that simple.

Karkat and Dave look at each other. They say nothing for a moment, and then Dave has to crack a joke.

Dave grabs Karkat’s hand, which is clammy by the way, and he says, “They’re right. We shouldn’t fight.”

He snaps his hand away from Dave like he’s repulsed, and Dave wants to laugh. Won’t, but it’s deserving of one. “Quit that shit. Anyway, you gotta take my spot, I gotta go.”

“What? You’re leaving, where are you going?” Dave asks, watching as Karkat rises to his feet.

“To sleep. I’m tired.” He says.

It’s only about 3PM on meteor time… That’s weird. Karkat never naps, he has the troll equivalent of insomnia.

“You sure dude?” Dave asks, skepticism obvious, “It’s pretty early.”

“Yeah. Later Mayor.” Karkat waves his hand to Mayor and looks at Dave before turning and walking away down the hall.

Dave turns to Mayor, eyebrow raised slightly over his glasses. “Whatever. He wants to be cagey, ain’t my obligation to ask why.”

Mayor doesn’t seem to really register it, just picks up a carved can and starts zooming it around on the roads like a car. Dave plays along. It’s something to do, and it keeps Mayor happy, so Dave’s glad to play pretend with the little guy.

Eventually it’s dinnertime so Dave goes to the main room to see what the girls are up to, Mayor holding his hand as they walk in.

It’s just Rose and Kanaya today, Kanaya fiddling with their radio while Rose sways behind her, drinking out of a mug. Dave raises an eyebrow at her swaying, letting Mayor go run up to her to hug the two girls. He gets a couple pats on the head and then they’re back to their business.

“Dearest brother of mine, perhaps you can assist.” Rose says, in that way that says she’s faking her sobriety.

Dave sighs and walks up to the radio, Kanaya moving aside to watch what Dave does. “What’s it doing?”

“Simply not playing the music.” Kanaya states, and Dave looks back to see Kanaya is busy staring at Rose in mild concern. She tries to wrap her hand around the mug and Rose playfully puts it out of reach.

Dave looks down at the radio again, holding back his frustration. Eventually they come to the decision that the problem is the battery, so Dave crafts a new one like the genius he so is, and they thank him. It works now, leaving neither Kanaya or Dave to ignore Rose’s obvious drunkenness.

They glance at each other and Rose plops her dumb ass onto the sofa. Dave leaves the room, never being able to stand Rose when she’s drunk-- which is pretty damn often nowadays.

It was never funny or charming or even rebellious and exciting. It was just concerning. And now it’s, unfortunately, old news. Which is fucking depressing, and it really pisses Dave off. He tried bit by bit to express his discomfort with it, but he can’t make Rose stop unless she sees there’s a problem, so he’s forced to keep to himself. She’s smart enough to know what she’s doing is irresponsible, but Dave is just as smart to know that that won’t and can’t stop her.

But Dave can’t think about that shit. It makes him upset. He hates seeing Rose like this, coping so badly, hurting Kanaya. With Terezi it was like… It sucks what she went through. And they intervened, because they knew they should, and Terezi was coping badly too, but she had a chance.

With Rose, it’s like, you could literally take the bottle out of her hand and she’ll convince you why you should give it back. Or she’ll just craft a new bottle when you go to sleep. Either way, you’re not winning, she’s not listening, and no progress is being made.

Now Terezi is okay, and she’s with Vriska, and that creepy fucking clown is staying in the vents where he belongs- if not blasted into outer space (but who’s going to be the one to evict him, right?).

But Rose… Dave is scared for Rose. She’s getting worse. It used to be drinking too much when they occasionally had a small shitty party, and then it was once a week, twice a week, and now it’s every day. Twice a day, warding off the hangovers before they come to her.

Shit, he told himself he didn’t want to think about this. It just makes him upset.

Dave leaves the kitchen-nutrition block, and goes straight to his room. Well, dormitory, more like. It’s just a box with a hole in the wall for his mattress and a desk pushed against the connecting wall. He added some other furniture but now it’s all covered in papers and drawings and books and movies etc.

He doesn’t touch any of it. He goes to his mattress and sits down, taking a deep breath of that stale recycled air. There are moments when Dave despises this space. It’s grey, small, he’s trapped indoors, and it makes him feel like he has no room to think. It’s depressing, frankly. It brings up a lot of stuff for him to think about feeling trapped, and then it’s just a spiral from there, but Dave tries to think about other stuff.

Music. Yeah, beats, he should work on some beats. He had that one rap he was gonna write and totally blow everyone away with, and possibly make Karkat piss his pants with laughter.

Movies. Movies are good, they have a finite amount but it’s kind of fun to rewatch something and try to notice something new about it. He and Karkat haven’t had a movie night in a while, maybe they could set that up.

Drawing. He should make a new comic, at least to take his mind off stuff. No, maybe not. Drawing is a vessel to draw his darker thoughts and sometimes that’s worse. But he could share them with Mayor and Karkat, and they’d appreciate it.

Hm. Karkat is somehow involved in all of these. Maybe that’s his brain saying he should spend time with his good bro. Although... He said he was tired, Dave would feel like a total shithead for waking up an insomniac.

He decides to make a compromise, messaging Karkat through their handy ass watches/crab watches, and awaiting a response.

It doesn’t come right away. He must be sleeping, Dave assumes. Dave tries to distract himself, but thinking so hard leads to him pacing, and pacing leads to anxiety, and anxiety feeds into the spiral. Shit, maybe he should’ve left Karkat alone.

He’s momentarily distracted when he gets a message back through his foam ass watch/talkie, seeing Karkat has responded ten minutes after Dave’s first message.

< WHAT DO YOU WANT. >

Dave scratches his head, pacing for a moment. Okay. Be cool, stop being an anxious asshole for a second and respond like a normal person.

< just wanted to see if you wanted to catch a movie >

< no biggie if not like i got my own thing going on >

< might just try out this new napping thing youve started >

< the trends really taking off you know >

< all the kids are doing it even bradley thompson jacobs >

< WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT NOW?? >

< dont tell me you dont know bradley >

< that dude fucks how can you not know bradley >

< fuck it cool kids aside no pressure we can do it another night >

Dave knows he’s rambling. He tries really hard not to send another message after that one. Karkat responds after another two minutes.

< IT’S FINE. I’LL COME OVER. MEET IN FIVE AT THE TV ROOM. >

  
  


Dave goes to meet in five at the TV room. It’s empty, as it usually is, and there’s a stack of folded blankets on the cushions of the couch. Undoubtedly Kanaya’s doing. The movies are even lined up again, put in alphabetical order.

For a moment before Karkat arrives, Dave has to shake his head at the organizing. He knows Kanaya is secretly a mess, she just keeps up appearances for their sakes, cleaning up around the meteor. He never really got it, it’s not like they make huge messes anyway. They barely have any furniture or belongings to make messes with.

Karkat arrives a short moment later, looking defeated that Dave got here before him. Dave only showed up a moment earlier, but it’s kind of assumed that whoever gets there first will pick a movie and lock it in before the other person gets there. Dave didn’t feel like racing to do that this time, so he didn’t.

“What? No shitty movie to torture me with?” Karkat asks, and Dave’s eyes trail down to the front of his shirt.

“Where’s the sixty-nine?”

“What?”

“The sixty-nine. On your shirt. Oh, you’re wearing it backwards dude.” Dave walks around him to see the Cancer symbol is on the back. And his hair is messy. “Wow, you actually just woke up, didn’t you.”

“...Yeah.” Karkat side eyes him, adjusting in his shirt so it faces the right way forward. “Whatever, fuck off, and this isn’t even numbers. It’s fucking Cancer. Like the crab? You fucking dolt.”

“Newsflash asshole, I know. It’s a constellation from  _ my _ planet’s view. Sheesh.” Dave walks away from him to flop onto the sofa, and Karkat follows, walking around the opposite side to sit across from Dave.

Anyway, it takes them a good twenty minutes to find the perfect movie for the mood (Dave is actually just playing contrarian to annoy Karkat), when he’s kind of taken offguard.

“You know, I’m actually not feeling so hot. I’m going back to my block.” Karkat says, sounding truthfully a little tired.

Dave flounders, unsure what to say. Karkat’s never done this in all their time together, he’s never just up and left in the middle of them deciding to watch a movie. He must be sick or something, Dave remembers.

“Oh, okay. Sure. Feel better.” Dave calls out to him, as Karkat leaves the room. The strangeness of that interaction makes him feel a little odd, but more importantly than that, Dave’s alone again. Which sucks, because this is exactly what he was trying to avoid.

He’s back to square one. His friends are coupling up, so he can’t third wheel, and he can’t be alone, because he gets upset about how shitty things are lately, and he can’t go outside, and he can’t draw--

But he CAN take a shower.

Fucking duh. It was there all along. The shower is a calm place to be. It’ll feel good, he’ll be clean, he can try to sleep after. And it’s the only place where being alone isn’t so bad. It’s perfect.

Dave takes a shower. He puts his head down and lets the water run off his shoulders as he looks down at the drain without his sunglasses on, seeing the colours without the dark tint over everything. He’s gotten extremely used to the tint, truth be told. He forgets about how bright things can be without them, but that’s sorta the point anyway.

Sunglasses and colours aside, Dave takes his shower, a little longer than usual, and gets out to dry off. It’s kind of a communal area, like a locker room except way different, grey, and trollian. But the point isn’t the setting, it’s that this is where he is when he hears… Giggling?

At first he thinks maybe it’s one of the girls, but it doesn’t sound like any of them. It happens again. Dave turns his head, trying to locate where it’s coming from, waiting for it to happen again. It doesn’t. A couple moments pass and Dave brushes it off, unsure what he could do about it if he’s overhearing someone’s laugh.

He gets dressed in his godtier pajamas again and leaves the showers to go to his room for the “night”; which is really just a word that’s lost its meaning when you have no relevant position to a sun or day. It’s just the twelve hour space in which everyone will go to their rooms and sleep, if they can.

Dave dreams, for the first time in nearly two weeks.

It’s not really much of anything. He has a picnic lunch with Rose, who’s sober, and eventually Vriska and Kanaya join them, along with an Earth celebrity whose name Dave totally forgets. It’s not anything special or weird, nothing stands out, except for one detail.

That laugh. A giggle, not like a cackle, but like a hushed whisper, trying to hide but unable to contain itself. It keeps coming every few minutes, in little moments, and then disappearing. It’s almost torturous, with the way it echoes and takes over his senses. Not that it’s an annoying laugh, something about it is familiar, actually. It’s just so familiar, so tangible, it bothers him.

Dave wakes up and forgets about it immediately. It’s 11AM and he’s probably the last one awake, so he gets up and restarts his routine. He gets up for breakfast, does hygiene, and plays with Mayor. He ignores Rose, silently pities Kanaya, and only briefly runs into the Scourge Sisters. They’re playing chess wrong in the main room, but Dave doesn’t bother to sit and talk. He gets coffee and soon leaves.

Karkat doesn’t show up at all. Dave considers checking on him, but ultimately decides against it.

The routine starts up again. Today’s a little better, mood-wise. Dave makes some music, writes some raps, plays with Mayor, and tomorrow comes. Still no Karkat.

Dave goes to check on him on that third day, mildly concerned that Karkat up and died of the space flu in his room. He’s mortal, they gotta watch out for that stuff.

Dave knocks on his door, first. Karkat doesn’t respond, which makes Dave wonder again if he’s asleep. For a moment, he wonders if he should come back, but he’d feel guilty if he forgot and didn’t come back until another three days passes.

Again, he knocks on the door. No response. Louder, again. Nothing.

“Yo, Karkat, you in there? I’m coming in.” Dave warns, pushing the door aside and peeking into his room.

It’s identical to Dave’s room, in terms of structure. A small square room with a hole in the wall for a mattress, a desk pushed against the connecting wall, and various personal items scattered around. Karkat isn’t a messy person like Dave is, but it does look like he’s lacking in tidying up, by Karkat standards.

Strangest thing, though. Karkat isn’t even in the room. There’s no place to hide, the bed is definitely empty, and it’s made, too.

Dave does a double-take before closing the door. He ponders where Karkat might’ve gone for a second, going straight to CanTown first to see if he’s there. Dave checks the kitchen-block, main/computer room, TV room, and even asks the others if they’ve seen him. No one has, in three days.

“Holy shit.” Dave says, lifting his head.

“What is it?” Kanaya asks.

“Do you think… Okay, call me crazy, but is it possible that clown motherfucker took him?”

Kanaya gawks. “No.”

“No like you don’t think it’s possible?” Dave asks.

“He wouldn’t. Although he’s become completely unhinged, Gamzee is still predictable, Dave. He’s always had a sweet spot for Karkat. But that just means he won’t bother him, either.” Kanaya says, with a confidence that Dave wants to believe her.

Still, Karkat’s kind of missing right now. He’s been assumed to be in his room for the last couple of days, but now no one knows where he’s been.

“Sorry, I gotta keep looking for him.” Dave goes on to say, turning tail to leave Kanaya there, in search of the troll boy.

First Dave goes back to CanTown (he’s not sure why), then remembers, again, that showers are a thing. And bathrooms. Dave goes by the showers and they’re empty, then the bathroom and-

Nearly runs right into Karkat’s body.

“Hey, jegus, watch it Strider.” Karkat growls. Dave steps back, taking him in for a moment. He looks tired, again.

“Where have you been?”

“The fuck?”

“I was looking for you, I went to your room and you weren’t there.” Dave explains.

“Clearly, dumbshit, I was using the ablutionblock.” Karkat blows him off, attempting to walk away.

Something doesn’t sit right with Dave. “Hey, are you okay? I haven’t seen you in like three days. You know, at risk of sounding tsundere, not that I’m up all night fretting over each of my individual bro’s and broette’s health, but you gotta admit, not hearing from Shouty for three days is mildly concerning.”

“Don’t call me that.” Karkat says flatly, like he has a million times. “I’m fine Dave, just catching up on sleep.”

For three days?

Well, Dave knows better than to force someone into talking about something they clearly don’t want to mention, so he lets Karkat walk away.

Dave has no dreams for the next couple of days. Karkat is still sparse.

Dave kind of feels like he's losing all his friends, when he used to be surrounded by them. Losing his sister was hard enough, but Karkat too? He was his best friend on this shithole meteor, and Karkat's being weird and sleeping all day, and Dave is getting the vague feeling he could be hiding something.

It sucks feeling alone. He lets the weirdness go on for a few more days, watching Rose get worse and everyone become even more distant over time. Dave is having a hard time putting on a happy face for Mayor's sake.

He'd probably feel better if he just had someone to chill with, but he doesn't right now.

**Author's Note:**

> if any1 has any thoughts as to what might be going on, i'd LOVE to hear it
> 
> twitter _tenguoni
> 
> EDIT: sorry i kinda fell out of interest with homestuck, unfortunately i don't think ill be coming back to this any time soon. thank you for reading though! if you want to know what happens, read below!
> 
> \---
> 
> ok so basically im a multi-shipper but i have no interest in the idea of gamzee/karkat/dave so i flip around on which boy karkat ends up with, THUS in this fic, karkat is being lured to gamzee's hiding spot to snog and cuddle and such. things go awry when dave starts noticing the small oddities surrounding karkat's disappearance. gamzee may show his angry side again and karkat breaks up with him, going to dave for consolation. through this, they spend a lot more time together and eventually ... dey kiss +_+ i was going to make it special and scenic too but maybe ill do that for another writing piece instead. aw well!


End file.
